not nearly enough time for them all

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On my recent trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam (which you can read about on my other blog….if you want) I came across an interesting vehicle. I photographed this in Cambodia outside of Phnom Penn.

Apparently this is a tuk tuk and it retails for about 3000 dollars. I thought it would be an interesting grocery getter. I didn’t have the opportunity to take a ride in one, but perhaps some future day I will.

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this car. I wouldn’t call it a classic, but I would say this style of car will never be made again. Of course, we could lose the ability to do any wind tunnel testing and then maybe it could make a comeback.

I cam across this car in a parking lot of a Giant Tiger/Dollarama combo mall in Scarborough. Just in case you want to go looking for it. It’s still on the road.

After today’s bike ride, on the way to the coffee shop where the cyclists congregate after a ride, I found myself in a car show.

Obviously this was planned, and although I don’t live in that town (I live in the one directly south) I probably should have known about it. Sadly I didn’t. Luckily, my phone has pretty good camera (actually, I use the camera a lot more often than the phone, so I should say that my camera has a decent phone in it).

I hope you enjoy the pictures. I certainly enjoyed walking among them.

Lately, I have been interested in hot rods–particularly the deuce coupe. The closest I will come to building one is in plastic model form.

beautiful!

There’s very little I can…or need to say about this one.

This was the reason I loved the TV show Stingray. It might have been a tad bit hokey…but man the car.

I just finished watching the Indy 500 on television.I have to say that there was a time in my life when that was really important.There was a time when I looked forward to it all week.There was a time when I planned my snacks for the big event, like I do for the Grey Cup. That time seems like a long time ago.I guess it just doesn’t capture my imagination like it used to.

I still like motorsports.I dedicatedly watch the British Touring Car Championships.I love the speed and the technology.When I write like that, it is hard to understand why the 500 just doesn’t do it for me.I can hardly understand myself.

I am not going to repeat those oft cited 200 laps of left turns.Those never made sense to me before, and they aren’t going to start now.I also am not one of those people who watch for crashes.Thankfully safety technology has cut down on the fatalities in auto racing.Sadly, they have not been eliminated entirely.

Maybe it is the commentary.Despite the in car views, telemetry and abundant stats, I find some of those racing comments like nails on a chalkboard.I don’t blame the commentators entirely.I blame them (and all commentators) for relying on cliche and hackneyed expressions, but I know that some of those are directed at less than knowledgeable and casual fans.In this great high tech, high bandwidth TV universe, couldn’t we have a secondary channel where they didn’t state the obvious, didn’t speak to me like I was five years old?Let me choose, I might surprise you.

The most popular place in Tokyo to spend New Year’s Eve–in Nanoblocks (fitting isn’t it)

Despite what people might think, Christmas is not necessarily the greatest time for hobbyists.Yes, Christmas brings the potential of much wanted presents for the hobbyist.It might also bring a good boxing day sale (as it did in my case) but that doesn’t mean there really is time to actually do anything.Christmas is so full of stuff that the real hobby season may not begin until the start of the new year.

I know there are people out there who had planned and executed their Christmas shopping and preparation by September.Those people probably have had lots of time to play with trains or build model cars.Based on what people on my favourite train site are saying, there seems to have been lots of time to improve their models and run quite a few trains.

I have not been blessed with too many vacation days–yes, I am that guy.They guy you see marching off to work like some lemming every morning while you are still in your PJs enjoying that first cup of coffee.While this may sound like sour grapes (and at times it is) I was still better off than the people around here who didn’t have power until Christmas day.Even if those people had the day off, they couldn’t have run trains or powered an airbrush.

The new year is upon us, and I should take stock of the –in terms of hobbies.Life has been pretty full, but I’d rather focus on what this blog is supposed to focus on.

I have enjoyed blogging and while this blog’s readership has been growing slowly, the blog that I set up to help my students’ English has done remarkably well.I have even done a good job of preparing and working ahead, so I don’t need to panic the day before a lesson is supposed to be published.

I have reconnected with the Nscale.net website and have enjoyed their advice and stories as part of my effort to build my n scale train layout.

I have built and painted several models, and can feel good about my improvement in these areas.

I have spent time running trains and have reignited my passion in this area.

I have come to love Nanoblocks, but hate that they aren’t as readily available as their big brother Lego.While they are popping up at toy stores, they soon sell out and restocking seems to take months.

My passion for reading allowed me to read 44 novels this year.While this is by no means a record for myself, I think it isn’t too bad since for a quarter of the year I had my head buried in ESL methodology books.

I found time to do a few Jigsaw puzzles, but wonder what to do with them after they are built.

I have watched far too much YouTube, but I am happy that the few things I have posted have seemed popular.Though, honestly, I am not sure why unboxing the Statue of Liberty Nanoblock kit is so popular.Maybe one of you could watch it and let me know.

It hasn’t been a stellar year for practicing Japanese, but I still feel good about my ability.

In my next blog, I will look ahead to the coming year and what joy it may bring.Thanks for reading.

It may sound corny, but one of the things I want to in my life is build a Cobra replica car.Knowing my track record with such projects, I should just work hard, save my money (maybe win the lottery) and just buy the thing.The project would probably take too long and too much space in the garage…. but I just can’t let go of the idea.

Why the Cobra?That and the 1967 Mustang are my two favourite cars.It probably isn’t a coincidence that Carol Shelby had a hand in both of those cars.They are both beautiful cars.It also isn’t a coincidence that neither of these cars is suited for Canadian weather.If I had them (and could afford the insurance) they would both be summer cars.That would mean having them and my winter car….and people say money isn’t a solution.

I came close to buying the 67 mustang once.I went to look at it with the hopes of purchasing it, but the owner, despite making the appointment, didn’t stick around to show it to me, or even talk to me.I guess he didn’t like the cadence of my voice over the phone.Luckily the car was parked outside his house (not a great option in winter in Canada).His neighbour talked to me about it, but he didn’t give me the hard sell and I was able to leave with my money in my pocket.Realistically, it wouldn’t have been a good purchase.I was in the middle of my studies and within a 16 months would be off to Japan.I didn’t know that at the time, but it is funny how fate works out.

I have never been close to that car again, but I still think about it.I have seen them build those cars on various TV shows, and every time I have been a little envious.I really need my own TV show.They could let me build my dream car and document my mistakes (and probable injuries) for everyone to see….. I had better start working on my pitch.

In England, there is a car company called Caterham, which allows you to build one of those funky roadsters you see in British TV shows from time to time.It comes as a kit and you assemble it.It sounds like a dream, except that I watched those guys from BBC’s Top Gear get fed up and argue constantly about it.They said that you might get satisfaction out of building it, but everyone else around you would go completely bonkers.Of course, according to the video you can buy it assembled for an extra 2000 British pounds.I am not sure what would be best.

Winter seems to have started early this year (there is snow on the ground), so I guess I had better put off the idea until spring…or I could just let it nag away at me all winter.Such is the life of a dedicated hobbyist.

When I tell people I have a lot of hobbies they mostly ask what they are and leave it at that.The more adventurous ones might wonder how I can afford it.Funny though, no one wonders where I keep it all.

I have written a couple of blogs about storage, but that’s common to all hobbyists.We’ve all got tools and supplies and various other equipment.It takes up space, but most of that is “out of the way” or stuffed into a closet.There is always room for that stuff.What nobody really stops to consider is what do you do with the finished products.

If you have a hobby that results in some finished product, you might want to display it.In some cases you’ve got to display it.Sure, you can give some of it away–some people do crafts that turn into Christmas presents.But, how many times do your family and friends want that stuff?If it is a quilt, you probably don’t mind having six or seven of them, but how many wool sweaters do you want?How many hooked rugs do you need?How many paint by numbers can adorn your walls?

Okay, some of these crafts are beautiful.Hence the reason I wrote that you’ve got to display them.Sometimes these crafts are so integral to your life that everyone expects to see them on display at your house.No problem there.

I, Jack of all hobbies, however, have so many hobbies, and do not often produce things of display quality.What do I do then?

Limits.I have limits.There are only so many of one thing that I can have before it needs to get pared down.If I make a good car model, it usually displaces a model I am less happy with (though some parts end up in the parts box for that diorama I am going to do someday).I’ve only go so much shelf space, and the better models make the bad ones look rather poor.

New magazines displace old ones–or more likely, deluxe editions of books put out by these magazine publishers displace the magazines. Realizing that they had me paying twice, I read the magazines at the library and only buy the books….but this is a topic for another day.

Train stuff….well, I can always make more room for train stuff.I am into N scale, and that doesn’t really take upa lot of room…..besides, you’ve got to have priorities, and you’ve got to rationalize.

Take my latest puzzle.I did it because I liked trains.I thought about putting it up over in the room where there will be a train…but then I realized that wall space was at a premium, and I had already done a couple of other train puzzles that I thought were better than this one.So what could I do?Despite my pack rat nature, I am going to pass this puzzle off to someone else who will have to figure out what to do with it once they are done.